Police decisions measured in scant few seconds

By Michael D. Kane BANNER EDITOR

Thursday

Jun 28, 2012 at 12:01 AM

The caller reported a mother and daughter arguing; not uncommon for any community, Boylston included. However, no one could say what followed is commonplace. Though it is no longer out of the ordinary.

The call came during daylight hours. Officers responding to the training scenario easily determined from the driveway that several people in the two-story home were yelling.

No one responded to knocking, and just about 30 seconds after arriving on scene the lead officer cautiously opened the door to find a family in hysterics, engaged to a point where officers' orders were ignored. Their presence, however, is not.

To the officers' right, a teenaged daughter blames her mother for their arrival. The mother, at their left, denies the accusation, while the father, above the officers on a stairs, wants to know why the officers are in his house.

Forty seconds after arrival, the daughter leaves through a doorway located at the edge of officers' peripheral vision. The yelling, now aimed at officers continues. Six seconds later the daughter is back, gun in hand. Two seconds later, shots are fired.

And those two seconds were among the longer times Boylston police officers had to respond during firearms training last week.

In hour-long shifts, officers engaged in live-ammunition firearms training held in a mobile training center, operated by Blue Line Corp., out of Sudbury.

Held in the bulletproof trailer, the training included not only static target training, but low-light and strobe-light situations, as well as real-life situations that ranged from alarm calls and traffic stops to house breaks and school shootings.

In all, officers had seconds, if not less to react. And the large projection screen and first-person camerawork made officers feel like they were in real-life situations.

“That's what this was all about – target ID and recognition,” Chief Anthony Sahagian said.

Which suspect was armed was unknown. Which suspect would actually shoot was unknown and, in some cases, the suspect's location in relation to officers was unknown.

For example, officers walked into dozens of students fleeing a school building, and among the students ran the shooter. A drug deal in progress had already become a gunfight before officers arrived, but all the shooting was taking place behind reflective glass.

“We had no idea what was in that room,” Sahagian said about the scenario, which he described as a “no shoot” situation and the hardest of the scenarios he faced in the training. “We had no idea who was shooting or if there was an innocent party in there.”

Sahagian had taken part in early simulated firearms training while in the military. More recently, he took part in simulated training at the police academy. Both of those simulated trainings were excellent, he noted. But the ability for officers to use their own firearms, not laser-mounted guns, and to work with the very officers who would be at their side in a real call, raised last week's training above others, he said.

“It was just fantastic,” he said. “It was the cat's meow.”

Overall, the simulator now holds 800 scenarios, as well as a strobe-light to simulate flashing lights, according to Blue Line Operations manager Jerry Tilbor.

“So, they can keep coming back and experiencing different situations,” Tilbor said. When testing one department, Tilbor said he often runs the same situations for each officer, so that the performance can be discussed, or, in some departments, critiqued.

Last week, Boylston officers faced 21 scenarios in 40 minutes. Several were variations on traffic stops that ranged from belligerent drivers to drivers who go for the officers' guns. Many were domestic calls, some involving firearms, some not. Some involved a suspect shooting; others surrendered.

“Domestic violence is the biggest cop-killer there is,” Tilbor said. “The situation is out of control – everyone is yelling ...”

Officer Phillip Bazydlo also noted that, once the scenes started, he became totally engrossed in the situation at hand, joking that, in a bank robbery simulation, he found himself leaning to get a better view of a partially obstructed shooter.

The training, Bazydlo noted, was as much keeping an officer's decision-making skills sharp as it is about accuracy.

“Our yearly qualifications consist of shooting targets on paper,” Bazydlo said. “This was real-life scenarios. These are the guys you are on duty with every day. This is the firearm you carry every day. It was excellent.”

The simulator has been used by Shrewsbury police for five years, he noted. Last week, Holden hosted the trailer, which was also used by several campus police departments from Worcester during the same period. If possible, Sahagian said he would like to see the simulator return to Boylston as part of the department's annual certification process. But first he said he needed to thank those who made it possible this year – the patrolmen's union and the residents who support it.

“This was paid for by the union, and except for the (officers on duty), these guys are volunteering to be here today,” Sahagian said.

Sahagian said the union has seen “tremendous response” since changing from a telemarketing vendor to direct mailing from the union. The money is ultimately returned to the community through charitable donations and, as seen last week, through direct support of the department through training and equipment purchases.

“The people of Boylston always support us,” he said. “It would be nice for them to know the money is well used. The money goes right back into the community. There's no middle man.”

Union President Robert Thomas agreed with Sahagian's sentiments, noting the patrolmen's union fundraising drive is typically received well in the community.

“There is no more money in the budget for training anymore,” Thomas said. “The community has been tremendous, but there just isn't the money coming in from the state any more to support training.

“Certification only requires us to shoot at a piece of paper, but this actually gets the guys some experience with real-life situations, with low-light and no-light situations,” he said. “We want to thank the residents of the town immensely.”

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